Requeening is the most fragile window in a colony's life, and the most common mistake is opening the hive at the wrong moment - crushing a cell, or spooking a virgin who is out mating. Queen transition tracking turns every queen replacement into a day-by-day timeline so you check at the right time and stay out the rest of the time. On the hive Overview tab this appears as a Queen Watch card - that is the label you tap.
A cycle can start from any of seven trigger events: a swarm, a split, a supersedure, an emergency queen event, a deliberate requeen, a package install, or a captured swarm. You also tell it what the colony is starting from - eggs or larvae, an open or capped cell, a breeder cell, an emerged or laying-age virgin, a mated queen, or an already-confirmed queen - and the clock adjusts. A mated-queen install expects eggs within days; a swarm cell has to get through emergence and mating first.
How the day clock works
The timeline is anchored on three dates. QELD (Queen Egg Lay Date) is the day the egg that becomes the new queen was laid - day Q1 of the cycle, often back-calculated. MQVD (Mother Queen Vanished Date) is when the old queen stopped laying, which drives laying-worker risk. NELD (New Egg Lay Date) is the first day the new queen laid. The clock counts Q-days from QELD through cell capping, emergence (~Q16), mating flights, and first eggs (~Q28); once laying is confirmed it switches to W-days, tracking the first round of worker brood. Capped worker brood near W9 closes the cycle as succeeded.
Hive #12
Queen Watch — active
Swarmed · started Aug 6
Mating-flight window (Q20–Q28) — keep visits short, afternoons free.
Due now: New-brood check — Aug 28–Sep 1
RecordNext: Final brood check · Sep 9–Sep 13
- The Queen Watch card on the hive's Overview tab shows the current day code, upcoming milestones, the next required check window, and a mating-window forage note when weather and bloom conditions matter.
- Hives with an active cycle are badged in My Hives, in the tablet/web split view, and counted per apiary.
- Active cycles follow the hive everywhere: treatment warnings, pollination contract-ready counts, load warnings, AI context, sound-analysis corroboration, analytics, and season reports.
- Mating nucs are excluded automatically, so queen-rearing operations are not flooded with timelines.
Is this a paid feature?
No. Queen transition tracking is included on every tier, including the free Community Edition.
What is QDT?
Queen Development Time - egg-to-egg days from QELD to NELD. 22-37 days is biologically plausible and most successful cycles land around 28-30. Analytics tracks your averages and ranges.
Does it work on the web app?
Yes. Cycles sync across devices, so you can start one in the field and review it on the web later.
Was this helpful?
Still stuck? Contact support.